


Test of Courage

by orphan_account



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Established Relationship, M/M, Post dr3:hope, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Test of Courage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 11:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11379147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Nothing screams fun and safe like sleeping in an abandoned building while your friends do their worst in trying to scare you.Written for tumblr user kurokku-tokei for the komahina exchange.





	Test of Courage

“Remember our halloween party in school?” Saionji asked out loud during your communal breakfast. You watched as she popped another strawberry (that was coated in a concerning amount of sugar) into her mouth. There was a happy murmur of agreement in the room. She continued talking about this party that must have occurred after you were suspended and before you came back, while the others around her excitedly joined in.

“Remember how we snuck into the abandoned visual art room to spend the night? Those discarded sculptures were so creepy,” Sonia said, her eyes bright. From spending many hours in the library you knew Sonia’s favourite type of books were those that had horrific subject matter, so she must have had the time of her life in such a setting.

“What about when Gundam accidentally summoned all those bats?” Koizumi joined in, sounding ready to scold Gundam over something he did over four years ago.

“That was no accident, mortal! The swarm of winged rodents was under my control, it wasn’t until the siren started playing her dreadful hymn that they became free of my bounds!” Gundam said defensively. At the mention of her music, Ibuki began loudly singing one of her songs, causing the SHSL Imposter, who was to the immediate left of the musician, to cover their ears. Although the Imposter rolled their eyes at her song, they also showed a smile on their face and contributed to the growing conversation.

“I liked Souda’s fog machine. It made the atmosphere fittingly ominous.”

“Now that was an accident! He said it was supposed to be a humidifier!” Nidai shouted from his table, laughing in turn.

“Hey!” Souda said, jumping up on his feet at the friendly criticism.

It was actually fairly unusual for their time at Hope’s Peak to be a positive group discussion point. Even long before Junko came into the picture and wreaked everyone’s hope and took Nanami from the world the time you had shared at Hope’s Peak wasn’t as picture-prefect as Koizumi’s photographs portrayed them to be. Between the deaths of Kuzuryuu’s sister and Koizumi’s ex-girlfriend, you indirectly blowing up the gym, and the rough time Hinata endured as a reserve course student, there were few good memories that could be salvaged.

The volume of the room was also unusual for this time of the day. Breakfast was usually the only time there was true peace when you were all gathered as a group. Everyone was usually too busy yawning or blinking away sleep for their eccentric and conflicting personalities to shine through. With loud noises not being something you enjoy, eating breakfast was your favourite group activity (despite the fact that you weren’t truly a fan of the “eating” part). You couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit uncomfortable as the volume increased in the room, but your auditorial sensitivity was nothing to be too worried about. Besides, seeing the passion in the other talented students' eyes was always a privilege.

As the others continued to talk (Kuzuryuu was now arguing with Akane; he was apparently still mad at her for practically eating all the food, her rebuttal being that she did leave plenty of chocolate sweets, and that it wasn’t her fault that he was lactose intolerant), you felt a hand on yours. Looking to your right you were greeted with Hinata’s comforting face, his two-toned eyes were expressing nothing but care and concern. The surrounding noise must have reached a decibel that Hinata knew crossed your comfortable/uncomfortable threshold, and he was here to comfort you.

“Are you okay?” he whispered so only you could hear, his multi-coloured eyes soft. He rubbed your hand with his thumb and you nodded, smiling back at your boyfriend.

There was a time in your life when you would reject any form of kindness, reasoning that no one should be wasting their emotional labour on the likes of you, as well as there were many times in your life when you weren’t offered any kindness at all, so you often still found yourself second guessing and hesitating to respond to Hinata.

It was true that you’ve been more than just close friends since he awakened you from your personal Neo World Program, you had only been officially dating for about three months, and you were still nervous to indulge in being cared for by anyone, let alone someone like Hinata. He knew this, and you were both working towards a place where you wouldn’t consider someone else’s comfort an indulgence.

“That night was truly a test of all our characters,” Nidai’s loud voice bringing you back to the group’s conversation, “and as everyone’s coach I’m pleased to say we all excelled at over coming the fears we encountered that night.” Smiles were exchanged, and the room went silent in a brief moment of reflection and pride.

“Not all of us,” Tsumiki said her eyes focused on you and Hinata, as well as Mitarai. Her voice was quiet and timid, like she was scared she was ruining the moment being shared between her classmates.

“Hey, shut it!” Saionji said with her usual malice towards the nurse. She probably had more to say, but Saionji didn’t have the chance to spew anything else before her girlfriend placed her hand over Saionji’s mouth.

“Tsumiki has a point,” Koizumi said, glaring at Saionji as the dancer rolled her eyes. “Neither Kamukura, Komaeda, or Mitarai was there that night.”

“I believe my presence that night properly accounts for Mitarai’s absence,” the SHSL Imposter had a protective arm around Mitarai that clashed with the vinegar in their tone towards Koizumi. Even though they were one of the kindest out of the group, they were currently presenting as Togami and they had a role to follow. The animator looked small and scared, most likely due to both the sudden attention and getting singled out, and the idea of having to test the little courage that he had.

No one questioned the Imposter’s stance, and the group’s focus then fell on you and Hinata. “What about you two?” Koizumi asked. Her hand was still over Saionji’s mouth, and the dancer was beginning to move her head, as if she had to add her input and call you and your boyfriend scaredy-cats.

You consider the proposal for only half a moment. You’ve faced enough fears to last you a life time, but you’re sure this will be more fun than frightening. Besides, how could you say no to the ultimates? Espicially when they’re asking you to take part in the recreation of a shared happy memory between them.

Hinata’s hand was still on yours when you nod and he orally answered for both of you. “We’ll do it.”

* * *

The abandoned building was actually in much worse shape on the real Jabberwock island compared to its copy in the simulation. Apparently the interior of the building wasn’t included in the original code, and it took some quick, on the fly, coding from Alter Ego to make the mark-up for their party. In reality, the building was truly abandoned, and had no running water, air conditioning or electricity. It was nothing more than rotting wood, rusty nails, and dust. Between its interior state and the memory of what occurred there while in the simulation, it was the perfect spot for the night’s activities.

After breakfast you and Hinata were instructed to stay in your shared cabin for the day, and leave the preparations to the others. Staying in bed with Hinata had to be your favourite thing to do on the island, so there wasn’t a single complaint over this request from you.

Currently you were laying on your stomach, jacket and shoes removed, and had an open book in front of you. Hinata was sitting up and would occasionally lean down to brush hair out of your face and kiss your forehead. He also was toying with your currently detached mechanical arm, making a small improvement to something that you hadn’t noticed was breaking. It was peaceful and quiet, save for the occasional noise you could hear from the direction of the abandoned building through your open window. There was no pressure between the two of you to force a conversation or do something and you were both content with just being in each other’s presence.

As the day passed, you had decided to take a nap, reasoning that you would be kept up all night by the others’ attempts to recreate the experience they each had during their halloween party. You woke up hours later to the setting sun on your face and Hinata’s arms wrapped around your back. Your face rested against his chest and your thin body laid on top of his.

Noticing you stirring, Hinata spoke to you softly as he hugged you. “Hey, it’s just past 9:30, so we still have a half hour before they want us to be at the abandoned building.” You nodded slowly, not making any other attempts to move just yet. From the many times you’ve slept together you knew there is absolutely nothing as comfortable as laying on Hinata’s warm figure.

“Are you nervous?” Hinata asked to your sleepy self, one hand still on the small of your back and the other lifting your thin white hair from your forehead. As you shrugged a response you realized you were warm and were probably grossly sweating all over Hinata, not to mention that you had the majority of your weight on him. You quickly rolled off of your boyfriend, blinking the sleep out of your eyes, and muttering a quiet sorry that he either didn’t hear or didn’t see purpose in responding to. You knew Hinata would tell you it’s okay and he knew you saying sorry was more of an instinctive response than a conscious apology.

“You know I don’t like doubting the others, Hinata-kun,” you said after your gather yourself, sitting up, “but I don’t believe that even with their combined efforts that they would be able to make something I’m actually scared of.” Hinata sat up and nodded at you before reaching over to the nightstand to retrieve your arm. “I’m nervous I’ll just be uncomfortable or annoyed and accidentally laugh and hurt someone’s feelings.” He nodded again as he began reattaching the arm to your body.

“That’s fair. You would always laugh at the cheap effects the haunted house on the fourth island had to offer. It was a real mood-killer when I thought I could use the horrors there as excuse to hold your hand.” There’s a faux sadness in his voice and a small pout on his face. He had finished setting up your arm, and you intertwined his warm fingers with your metal ones.

“We’re holding hands now,” you say, bringing your hands up so he could see for emphasis. He gives you a warm laugh and leans in to kiss you. Although you could do without his morning-breath (nap-breath you suppose), his kisses were nothing but magical.

“Are you scared, Kamukura-kun?” You ask, returning the question to him, but not expecting him to affirm the question. Hinata was the bravest, strongest person you’ve ever met after all.

“I’m more concerned someone will get hurt. You know, not a single one of our friends half-ass anything, and if one of them has it in their mind that they’ll scare us, they’ll make it happen.”

* * *

 

You spend another fifteen minutes in bed before getting ready. After you rolled out of the sheets you helped each other get dressed and brushed your teeth and used the washroom. It would be truly unfortunate if nature called while you were in a building with no working toilets. You weren’t bringing much with you; Hinata had slung a small knapsack with some packaged snacks, waterbottles, your medications, and a first aid kit around his back and you carried a pillow and a large sleeping bag that you knew could fit you both if you get the chance to sleep. Once Hinata did a final check up, and made sure you both were ready, you headed out, hand in hand.

As you walked by the pool you noticed it was eerily quiet. Normally at 10pm there was usually still some buzz in the compound; someone splashing in the pool, or someone having a late night snack, or the white noise of a muted conversation that was happening in a near by cottage. All that was present was a chilling calm before the storm. Hinata voices this observation and you smile at how in-tune you are with each other. You were so ready to spend the night braving your friend’s attempts at terror with him.

The abandoned building’s door opens with a creak, and slams shut the moment you’re both inside. The loud noise and sudden darkness surprises you and makes you jump, while Hinata turns around to look at the door. The light of dusk was slipping through the uneven wood where the door wasn’t flush against the wall, providing you with just enough light to see what Hinata was doing.

Much like the floor and walls, the door was composed of rotting wood, but there was a small black casing by the lock. You watch as Hinata attempts to turn the door knob, followed by him examining the lock. After a moment he straightens himself back up and takes your hand again.

“I think Souda set up an automatic lock on the door.” You nod and Hinata begins to reassure you before you can begin to worry. “But it’s not like we’re stuck in here or anything, I mean we could still easily break the door down, but I think it would be rude to ignore his attempt to make us feel trapped.”

Under the floor boards you hear whispers followed by a louder hushing noise. You could only imagine someone chiding Souda, while the mechanic says something back in defence as a third person tells them both to be quiet. Based on the smile Hinata’s has, he also heard the people under you and thought something similar.

The dim light from the door is long behind you as you walk deeper into the building. It was difficult to walk the winding hallway with only the wall to guide you along the uneven flooring. More than once you had a misstep that would have resulted in you tumbling forward, if it wasn’t for Hinata’s hand in your hand that wasn’t against the wall. Luckily you both make it to the door of main room in once piece.

When you push the rickety doors open you’re surprised to see a light instead of more darkness. There’s a single lantern in the middle of the room that’s just bright enough to illuminate about a foot of the floor surrounding it. You can’t see the corners of the room, or what’s immediately in front of you, but it provides you with a goal to get to.

You set up next to the lantern, which you noticed is sloppily attached to the floor, a sign that you shouldn’t be moving it about (despite how easily it would be pull it from the floor). You unroll the sleeping bag, and you both take a seat on it rather than in it. Hinata places the backpack he had between you, and offers you one of the snacks and a water bottle. After you decline both he puts the items back in his pack, and exchanges them for your medication.

“You should take these now, I don’t want us to get caught up and forget about it.” You nod and open the pill bottle. Most of the time you take your meds just before bed, typically at midnight and more often than not Hinata is the one who reminds you take them.

It was never weird for either of you, that you were both boyfriends and had a doctor/patient relationship. You liked it because Hinata always knew what you were going through, no awkward explanation needed for any of your behaviours, and Hinata liked it because he could make sure you were doing things like taking your meds. The only downside to your ordeal was that sometimes you would find yourself guilting yourself over how much he worries over you, but Hinata has told you countless times that that isn’t necessary and he loves being the one there for you.

You hand your medication back to Hinata and eye him in the dim light. His tan face is just visible enough so you can make out his handsome features. Where you have hollowed cheeks and sharp edges, he has much rounder characteristics. He has a soft nose, soft cheeks, and when his red and hazel eyes look back at you they’re equally soft.

Just as you begin to lean in to kiss his soft, pursed lips you see movement out of the corner of your eye. You turn your head to where you thought it was, but you couldn’t make anything out in the inky darkness. If there was someone there they had already retreated out of sight. They had only briefly stepped in to the light just long enough to make you feel unrest and let you both know you’re not alone.

You look back to Hinata, who’s still looking to the side. His eyebrows are knotted, like he’s desperately trying to see through the dark shadows. You knew he had stronger vision than anyone else, but even his enhanced eyes weren’t perfect substitutes for night vision goggles.

“Hinata-kun, I think somone’s-” you stop mid-sentence when he holds up a hand, signalling for you to stop talking. He’s listening, you think, trying to pin-point the person’s location. As you walked through the building earlier you noted how each board creaked and groaned under your weight, and it should be possible for Hinata to pick up on the person’s location with his keen ears. You on the other hand, could hear all the creaks and squeaks, but couldn’t differentiate between the noises that were coming from inside the room to the sounds that were coming outside of the room (most likely from some of the others walking through the building, getting ready for your next scare).

After a moment of concentration, Hinata turns to look just over your left shoulder. There’s a smile on his face and for a short moment you’re impressed by his ability to locate a person based on just the soft sounds they make. The moment of pride is lost when behind Hinata you see a figure stepping into the light. They’re looking right at you, and have a grotesquely large smile on their ghostly pale face. Their body is adorned in ripped white cloth and it reflects the dim light of the lantern so they appear to be glowing.

You see right through their face paint and costume and can’t help but chuckle as they raise their arms, the loose cloth swaying with their movements. At your laugh, Hinata turns his head around to see what was amusing. Not expecting someone to be behind him, let alone someone dressed up as a ghost, he tenses and from his siting position he falls into you.

Hinata’s momentum leaves you on your back, but instead of seeing the darkness of the unknown ceiling you’re met with another person looking down at you. This must have been the person Hinata heard, and they’re also sporting a halloween costume, but is more zombie-like compared to the ghost behind you. You laugh at this person too, but unlike the ghost who remained silent, the zombie retorts back at you.

“Hey! You’re supposed to scream, not laugh, I mean, ughghggg,” you recognize the voice to be Saionji’s, and you and Hinata both laugh at her half-hearted attempt of a moan to save her act. The notice the person dressed up as a ghost was now walking around you, just on the outskirt of the circle of light. As they walked they faded in and out of the darkness, and from their airy clothing only occasionally being caught in the light they truly looked ghost-like. It was a cool effect and you would compliment them if Saionji wasn’t still staring you down.

“Aruaghrag!” Saionji says at you, obviously annoyed with your giggles towards her. Her grey skin and fake scars did make her look more frightening than usual, but you still weren’t scared. She’s holding her hands open, but she makes no attempts to bend down and actually grab either of you, so her stance also has little affect on either of you frightened. Despite her lacklustre performance Hinata throws her a bone and tries to play along.

“Komaeda, hold me!” He flips himself over so you’re now chest to chest as he voices his pretend destress. “This zombie wants to eat my perfectly developed brain!”

“Don’t worry Hinata-kun, I’ll use my body to protect you!” You say, matching Hinata’s dramatic tone as you wrap your arms around Hinata’s torso. _Maybe we’ll both get lucky and she’ll eat my sick brain and die before she gets her hands on you_ , you think to yourself, but don’t voice the comment. You’re not entirely sure Hinata would recognize your joke, and if you’re being honest with yourself, you’re not entirely sure how sarcastic the statement is.

Saionji rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. “As if either of you could provide a zombie of my status a filling meal.” She turns and walks back into the darkness, the ghost briefly coming back into view and following her.

There’s some more footsteps and you think your first two terrorizers walked out of the room. You and Hinata sit up, still giggling in the low light. You have a moment to yourself, when you here Saionji, who’s definitely in the hallway, call out in an ornery voice, “They’re all yours, banshee.”

You hardly have the sentence processed when someone who was also hidden away in the room begins to scream and bang the walls. It’s now your turn to move in closer to Hinata, but he keeps you both upright. The high-pitched scream doesn’t let up and they’ve started running back and forth around the room, all while managing to stay out of the lantern’s light. You put your hands to your ears, in an attempt to block out some of the noise, but the attempt is futile. There’s just noise everywhere and it doesn’t let up for a full minute. You reason that the “banshee” must be Ibuki, since no one else would (or would want to) be able to scream and run around non-stop for so long.

After a much too-long period of time, the screams stop and you hear an impossibly energetic voice from the direction of the door as she runs away. “These songs and more will be featured on Ibuki’s upcoming album!”

After having to listen to the screamo stylings of Ibuki, Hinata’s light laugh sounds all the more sweeter.

* * *

 

It’s a good half hour before the next attack of horrors hits you.

In the down time you and Hinata shared a few snacks and split one of the water bottles. Hinata asked you multiple times if you were doing okay, more concerned over the potential damage Ibuki did on your ear drums than the possibility of you being scared. You did your best to stop your concerned boyfriend’s worries by reassuring that you were fine and returned the question to him. You share a kiss once you both thoroughly establish you’re fine.

You were both still sitting crossed legged on the sleeping bag, and were just beginning to consider if you should actually get in to the sleeping bag or not when light fills the room. It rises up from the cracks in the floor boards, causing an eerie and incomplete glow. You look at the floor, then back at Hinata. He’s also studying room, now looking at the walls and ceiling to fully examine the room. You notice that save for your few items, the room is completely empty. No chairs or tables and not a single one of your friends.

Nothing happens for a moment and the small wait fills you with more worry and fear than the previous three’s actions combined. Once you know what you’re dealing with it’s easy to reason with yourself that you’re not in danger, but with the threat still unknown your anxiety gets the best of you.

You can hear the machine before you can see its product. A low humming and hissing noise comes from under you, and a second later the room begins to fill with smoke. The lights remain on, and are more of a nuisance then an aid to you, since they give you a false sense of visibility, when really all they do it bounce off the moving fog and obstruct your vision completely.

“Could this be Souda’s failed humidifier?” Hinata asks from beside you. He couldn’t be more than a foot away, but you have trouble making out anything other than a fuzzy outline of his figure, so you can’t see the smile you know he has on his face, laughing at his own joke. You think his right hand is on your left, but you have difficulty seeing that from your sitting position and can’t feel at all with your hand (although sometimes you believe you can feel things with that hand, Hinata has explained to you that you don’t have input sensory nerves to feel with, and that any perceived sense of touch is only from what your mind thinks you should be feeling given the current context of your situation).

“Kamukura-kun?” You ask, bringing your right hand to your left. There is definitely a hand on yours, and for a split second you worry that it’s not Hinata’s.

“I’m right here Komaeda, don’t worry,” he says calmingly as he places his other hand on top of your hand pile. You can see his outline coming closer and his face getting clearer, and you realize a moment too late that he’s leaning in to kiss you. At the realization you jerk your body, and when your lips meet him you’re kissing his nose and he’s kissing your chin, ruining what would be a properly centred kiss. He laughs and kisses your nose, this time with purpose, as you mumble a “Sorry Hinata-kun,” and he kisses your nose again and both cheeks and tells you there’s no need to be sorry, but that you’re forgiven regardless.

You sit like that a bit longer, faces still close enough so you can actually see one another in the fog, and you almost forget that your friends are somewhere, either underneath or around you, biding their time and waiting for the right opportunity to strike a fright out of you.

The first time you feel it you thought you were imagining things, just your anxiety and paranoia catching up to you, but you feel it again and the action is real; someone or something was poking your behind. On an instinct you turn your body around to punch behind you, but your fist it met with nothing but the substance-less fog. When you feel a third poke you realize the prodding had come from under you. Someone, or more likely a few someones, were poking at where your sleeping bag was laid out. It felt blunt enough, definitely not a metal skewer set on murdering either of you, but you didn’t appreciate getting poked in the behind, especially if it was from an unknown person.

You scramble up and step away from the sleeping bag, trying to escape the pokes. Hinata is still sitting and his figure, and even the light from the lantern becomes lost to you.

“Komaeda? Where’d you- ow!” He calls out. There’s more surprise in his voice than pain, but your heart still hurts for you boyfriend. You try to move back towards him, arms extended in front of you, but you’re unsure if you’re actually moving towards where he is. With your luck you’ll walk right out of the room, but you are thankful the room is empty and you only have to worry about tripping on the uneven flooring.

“They’re under the floor!” You warn Hinata. You can still feel the occasional prod at your feet, but you have your shoes on and their thick soles save you from the pain. Hinata had just taken his shoes off before the fog filled the room, and as a result you can hear a lot more stepping and jumping about from where he is in the room.

“I noticed,” he says, and he does sound fairly close, so at the very least you must be heading in the right direction.

It doesn’t take long before you find each other again, but you’re still getting poked at from below and Hinata has to keep moving from place to place so his feet don’t get prodded at. Hinata’s probably less concerned at the immediate threat of a bruise, and is more concerned that the others will find out that his feet are extremely ticklish. The others having that knowledge on Hinata is probably more terrifying than anything you would be presented with tonight. When you accidentally found out (you had thought you were being romantic, taking off Hinata’s socks for him after a particularly long day) Hinata had made you swear to secrecy. In an act of trust you responded by revealing that you were ticklish just about everywhere, and you’ve both kept this information to yourselves since that night.

After about 10 minutes of Hinata dancing about while just about ripping your good arm out of its socket (neither of you wanted to let go of the other) the poking stopped. Hinata takes a deep breath, but doesn’t appear to be notably winded. He does have every SHSL athlete talent after all, and you remind yourself that the majority of non-athletically inclined people can be physical for more than 10 minutes, and that not everyone has the inability to exert themselves like you do.

A second later all the lights, including your lantern turn off. You can hear Hinata take another deep breath, but you recognize this to be the sigh he makes when he wants to be rude, or tell you or one of your ex-classmates off, but in an act of kindness he keeps his salty comments to himself instead of ripping on another.

“Should we sit back down?” You break the silence between you. The fog machine is still hissing under you, but it had become white noise to you at this point.

“We might as well. We can always stand back up if they still feel like being jabbing us. In the meantime I’m going to try to find my shoes. I think I kicked them away when I stood up.”

Together you bend down and crawl, searching for the mesh material of your sleeping bag. Hinata leads the way and once again you find yourself sitting on the sleeping bag, awaiting for what your friends have planned next.

Hinata kisses you once before letting go of your hand to look for his shoes. A loving gesture that tells you he’ll be right back. Although you can’t see Hinata you can hear him shuffling around, crawling and extending his arms out. You feel a hand on yours and he mutters a quick sorry, before he continues his search for his shoes.

A few moments later you feel two hands on your hand again, and you laugh, “That’s not your shoes sorry, it’s still just my right hand.”

“What?” and at his answer your blood runs cold. Hinata’s voice was too far away for the hands to belong to your boyfriend, and you instantly try to retract your hand from the person’s grasp, but it’s for naught. Whoever it is, they’re much stronger than you, and their hold on you doesn’t falter. You tense, thinking of past memories, and can’t get the scream out of your throat. You feel your brain trying to reason with itself, that this is just one of your friends trying to (and successfully) scaring you, but you can feel your anxieties taking over. Your worry only increases when a third, large hand slaps duct tape over your mouth. You’re still trying to struggle your way out of the person’s grasp, but you feel yourself being lifted by your legs, and you lose your footing as quickly as you lose the small amount of cool that prevented you from having a panic attack. It’s happening again, you’re being kidnapped and taken away, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

“Komaeda?!” Hinata calls through the room, but he’s still too far away. You thrash about and try to use your free hand to remove the duct tape, but your blunt metal fingers don’t have fingernails to get under the tape, and one of your captors quickly grabs your hand from you, rendering you completely helpless.

You’re frantically breathing in and out of your nose, desperately trying to calm your heartbeat and mind. You try again to remind yourself that this is just your classmates pulling an ill-humoured prank and that you’re not getting kidnapped, but as you feel a tight cloth being placed over your eyes, your trauma kicks in at an unbearable level. Suddenly you’re ten years old again, getting shoved into bags and believing you would die at any moment. Your only serenity is that your limbs weren’t yet tied together, and you could still thrash about in your captors’ arms.

You can feel that you’re being moved, being taken away from the room, away from Hinata, but you can’t see where. You can hear the creaking of wood, and Hinata calling your name again but it’s muffled, as if it had to pass through a wall, maybe even mutliple walls. Where have they taken you? Were you out of the building or in one of the side rooms? What were they planning on doing to you? Questions filled your mind and you didn’t like any of the possible answers your mind supplied you with. You’re crying and you can feel your tears getting caught in your blindfold and your snot falling over the duct tape and you just want this to be over.

A crash can be heard in the distance and you continue to try to free yourself of the strong arms holding you in place. A second, closer crash quickly follows and Hinata is shouting your name, and he sounds truly scared. The entire building is groaning and you’re unsure if Hinata is fighting someone or if he’s breaking down walls in an attempt to find you. Since your mind considers your own safety and wellbeing a lost cause, your heart hurts for Hinata, and you hope with all your might that he stays safe.

You hear a third and final crash, and feel a blunt weight striking your face. Before you lose consciousness you think to yourself that you love Hinata, and hope that somehow, by some force, that if you don’t get the chance to tell him as much again, he feels your love.

* * *

 

When you come to you’re still in the abandoned building, but you’re back in the main room, curled up against yourself in the sleeping bag you brought. There are five or six bright lights placed around the room, and you sit up, using your right hand to support you. You notice the first aid kit is out of the backpack and open, and you remember getting hit in the face. You start to bring your left hand to face when you realize it’s been detached. In a panic you sit up straighter to grab the knapsack, relief washes over you when you feel the cold metal. You also feel your jacket and shoes and figure someone must have stripped you of them in an attempt to make your unconscious body more comfortable.

No longer using it to support yourself, you bring your right hand to where you were struck earlier. It stings like a bruise and it’s wet, and you’re thankful that when you pull your hand away there’s no blood on your finger tips, just a clear substance you assume is some sort of disinfectant for your wound. You wipe the slimy gel from your hand to your jeans and you hear voices coming from the closed door of the room.

You can hear Hinata, talking sternly (perhaps angrily or annoyed was a better descriptor) to an apologizing Akane and Nidai. It takes a moment for you to focus on their words rather than just hearing their sounds.

“-recreate Komaeda’s trauma?”

“Koizumi, and Saionji said that you both weren’t phased by their monster costumes, and we could hear you guys just complaining about Ibuki’s shrieks. Not to mention you guys weren’t really separated for that long in the fog. We had to up our game if we wanted to freak you both out.”

“Well congratulations, you did it. We’re both all freaked out.”

“But the others-”

“You guys took it way too far. But whatever, we failed your test of courage, I don’t care anymore. Tell Souda and Saionji and everyone else they can shove it up their ass if they have any further comments.”

A moment passes and the athletic pair’s voices are fainter when Akane saying something about how Gundam would be pissed and Nidai reassuring her that the animal breeder would find other uses for a trained hoard of island fruit bats. When the door opens Hinata still has his face curled in an angry expression and he’s talking to himself, probably saying the ruder comments that he was too polite to say to Akane and Nidai’s face. When he sees you he stops and perks up, and he’s kneeling by your side in two quick strides.

“Komaeda, you’re up! Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?”

“Kamukura-kun, I’m-” you start to apologize, planning on saying you’re sorry for ruining the night with your silly memories, that you shouldn’t have let them get the best of you, or something else equally unfair to yourself, but he cuts you off.

“I’m sorry about everything. I knew someone would take it too far, I should have been more prepared,” he shifts his gaze down from your eyes to your cheek. “And I’m really sorry about that.”

You bring your hand back up to your cheek, but he stops you before you can touch the wound again. “What did you do?” You know Hinata would never purposely hurt you, and you don’t mean to sound accusatory. “Do you have a mirror?”

“No, uh, they had you in a side room by the front door, and well, I broke down the door? I broke down a few actually.” That would explain the crashes you heard earlier, and looking at Hinata’s hands you notice his knuckles have a few splits on them, but they were either not too big to begin with or his accelerated healing already had him mostly patched up. “A rouge piece of wood hit you when the door came down.”

You nod and reflect on this. It was true that with Hinata’s SHSL Luck your own luck was often muted, leaving you with only mildly good and bad luck, but it felt like your bad luck was alive and well tonight. You don’t voice this to Hinata though, he looks like he’s emotionally exhausted and you wouldn’t want to give him another strain.

Noticing your silence, Hinata speaks up. “Hey, let’s go back to the cabin and get some good sleep. It’s not much past one.” He begins to reach for the bag, maybe to get your shoes or jacket, but your reach out to his arm and stall his movements.

“I don’t mind just staying here,” you say, bringing your hand down and patting the sleeping bag, encouraging Hinata to sit down. “Traditionally it’s the staying over night part that’s important to the test of courage anyways.”

“I’m not sure how traditional it is to tell off the surrounding spirits,” he says to counter you, but he makes no further attempt to leave. Instead he begins to loosen his tie, telling you that you will be staying the night.

“Besides, I’ve had to sleep in here before, and it’s not that bad,” you eye Hinata as his nimble fingers undo his shirt’s buttons, distracting you from continuing your thought. You bring your eyes back to his when his undershirt becomes fully visible. “As long as you’re here Hinata-kun, I don’t think I can classify anywhere as bad.” He smiles and kisses you in response to your shameless flirt.

You shimmy out of your pants, socks, and t-shirt, leaving you in just your undergarments and watch as Hinata, who had also removed his shoes and pants and turned off the surrounding lights, crawls in after you. Like always, he’s warm against your body and you love the heat that washes over you as he hugs you from behind.

“I love you Kamukura-kun. I was so worried, I thought I’d never get to tell you that again,” you whisper to the open air. The soft breath on your neck turns to slow kisses and he squeezes you again.

“I love you too.” It’s said with a fading voice, and you’ll talk more about your panic attack in the morning. He doesn’t need to tell you that for you to know that to be true and you appreciate how he takes the time in his exhausted state to tell you he loves you.

As you find yourself drifting to sleep you reaffirm what you said earlier to yourself; having your boyfriend pressed against you made this location, in all its hard and uneven glory, as warm and comforting as your bed. Here, wrapped in Hinata’s strong, protective arms you dream not of your reawakened trauma from the past, but the future you have together with your loving boyfriend.

**Author's Note:**

> 1 regret: Peko didn't get a mini feature. I'm sorry Peko I love you.


End file.
